CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

WHat kind of digital camera do you guys use?
And how big? -1.2,3.0 etc..?
And specific features to look for? analog zoom? digital zoom?
I don't know a whole lot about digital camera so any input would be great.

It's about time I start looking for a decient digital camera,I use my camcorder for my pics but somehow I lose color and clarity ALOT from my camcorder to my computer like it I have the LCD screen open on my camcorder and the uploaded pic on my computer the one on my camcorder look 10X clear and brighter and I haven't figured out how to fix it so maybe it's time to try a digital camera.

what do you want to do with the camera?
just take pictures?
minimovies?
sound?
voice recording?

is this going to be used for mostly outdoors or both equally?
or more of a professional thing?

do you care about the camera's size?
do you care about the camera's zoom?

and most of all, how much are you willing to spend?

i should be able to find you a camera if you know all of this crap

Just to let you know, all of the pics of my oscars on this site I took with my Nikon coolpix 990 camera. A 3.34Megapixel camera with max res of i think 2054x1536 and I paid $999.99 for the camera when I bought it but now days there are some pretty cheap digital cameras out there.

You can even get a 1280x1024 resolution camera for about $100. Whatever camera you get, it should have at least 1024x768 resolution or higher. You will find that 1024x768 is used the most.

I think my Nikon 990 coolpix probably sells for half-price now, around $500 I would think.


And YES, you VIDEO camera will give you crappy STILL pictures. First i think the video camera interlaces image, doesn't grab it all at once like digital camera and resolution is only 640x480 but even a cheap $50 digital camera should give a better image at the same resolution.

what do you want to do with the camera?

I'm just looking for a digital to take better pics to post online.

I don't care what size since it'll just be used in my house 99% of the time.

I want something that can zoom enough to take pics of things in my collection but I'm not to familiar with how zooms work on digital cameras since I been useing a 80x digital zoom RCA (old beast) or 22X Optical Zoom/800X Digital Canon camcorder to post pics online.
I was suggested a 3x optical and not to worry about the digital zoom to much? but like I said I have no idea how the zoom actually works on a digital camera.


I have a real camera (that I can't figure out lol) for taking pictures if I ever need high quality pictures. And I have camcorders if I need sound or movies just unfortunately I bought my cannon and it doesn't take the "super high quality digital stills" that it was supposed to.So I still need a digital camera

Whatever camera you get, it should have at least 1024x768 resolution or higher. You will find that 1024x768 is used the most

ahhh,glad I asked this because when I went to look at cameras everyone said once you go over 800X600 (or something like that) you can't tell the difference online?

Those Nikon coolpix 990 and 950's are nice cameras I looked at some, but the guy at the camera shop told me I would be wasteing my money unless I was planning on printing pictures because they're just basically a digital version of my regular camera

So I guess I'm looking for the best reasonably priced camera that will take pictures good enough to be clear online without wasteing money on extra features and stuff I'll never use or not notice.Since I have a camera, camcoder(s) and webcam (junk) I don't see a point in paying for extra features that are overkill or useless online.

If a $100 Digital Camera will work for what I need cool! if not I'd like to keep it under $300 at least until I know how one works and what the advantages are.

Thanks for the input so far.

I recommend you just go to a local place and buy a $100 digital camera that can do 1024x768 res or better. It should be a store where youc an easily return it for full refund if you're not satisfied. Then if you don't like it return it and start reading reviews for a $300 camera.

http://www.epinions.com and http://www.dealtime.com will really help you out on buying someting. http://www.zd.net http://www.dpreview.com http://www.dcresource.com http://www.steves-digicams.com have some good reviews.

I use a nikon coolpix 880, its 3.34 megapixels. The feature I look for is megapixels, optical zoom, type of memory (I like compact-flash cards the best). The camera is only half the challenge of getting good pics. I am assuming you will want to take photos of your fish, a great camera wont make a picture fish pic turn out great, it takes lots of practice. I usually take 40-60 pics and only get 3-5 good ones.